Sunday, June 12, 2011

"Rule of Law" in Madison? Maybe

Good catch here.

Since February, Jeremy Ryan, 22, has been arrested nine times and has been issued 15 citations totaling $3,604.50 for protesting and disrupting events at the Capitol.

So far, he hasn't had to pay a cent.

According to the state Department of Administration, 41 people have been arrested a total of 59 times since massive protests over Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill began Feb. 13. The most common charge for those arrested was disorderly conduct - a charge that can be civil or criminal.

Besides Ryan, one protester has been arrested four times and another has been arrested three times.

"No one's had to pay anything," Ryan said of the citations he knows of so far. "I don't even know why they end up writing them in the first place, to be honest with you."

So. When it became clear to the Dane County DA that this story was going to press, he did what the Dane County DA always does.

[Ozanne] said that he wasn't familiar with most of Ryan's citations but that in one of them at least his office is seeking more information.

"The fact that he hasn't been asked to pay yet wouldn't necessarily mean anything" in an ongoing case, Ozanne said.

Ozanne said that he believed most of the citations issued by officers such as the Capitol Police and State Patrol at the Capitol would come to his office. The cases take time to move through the system, he said.

It took a few press inquiries to get Ozanne off his dead butt to prosecute the woman who threatened every single (R) in the entire Capitol, too.

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